Camping with son of Gypsy Rose Lee

Tuesday

Feb 19, 2013 at 12:01 AM

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, I was a camper at Camp Lenape on Lake Fairview near Tafton. I would like to have information about the camp. There was also a boy named Eric Lee Kirkland, with whom I shared a cabin. His mother was Gypsy Rose Lee. I was wondering if his address is available.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, I was a camper at Camp Lenape on Lake Fairview near Tafton. I would like to have information about the camp. There was also a boy named Eric Lee Kirkland, with whom I shared a cabin. His mother was Gypsy Rose Lee. I was wondering if his address is available.

P.S., Albrightsville

The privately owned Camp Lenape for Boys near Tafton, Pike County, opened in 1920 and was associated with the nearby Oneka Camp for Girls, according to "The Handbook of Private Schools" (1920). At the time, Lenape featured the typical camp activities: horseback riding, water sports, hiking and handicraft.

By 1925, the campers, ages 7 to 17, slept in log cabins by age in groups of five. Each cabin was assigned a counselor — a college graduate, a detail that was readily publicized in an advertisement for the camp.

The same ad also promoted two distinctive staff members, a "cowboy" and an "Indian," who were instructors in horseback riding and woodcrafting, respectively.

Of all those who roughed it at Lenape, one group stands out — 38 members of the Temple University football squad. The players were brought to camp by Coach "Heinie" Miller for a "fortnight of rigorous conditioning in anticipation of one of the greatest football seasons in the history of the Cherry and White organization," according to a 1927 article in the Chester Times newspaper.

Although training for the Temple team was held at Lenape for only three years (1927 was the last), recruiting of the younger crowd did not wane, as attested by an advertisement in the 1936 "Cornell Alumni News," Ithaca, N.Y. The ad enticed potential campers — and those paying the bill — with "aquaplaning on a mountain lake in the Poconos" as well as other camp activities.

Around the time you were attending camp, David S. Keiser of Philadelphia, who was reported to be a researcher of Abraham Lincoln's religious background, was the camp director.

Although Keiser and the names of other past directors may not be recalled by former campers, the once-active camp lives on in photos. To view some of the photos, use the "Image" Google search, and enter the subject: Camp Lenape Tafton.

Your former cabin mate Eric Lee Kirkland, also known as Erik Preminger, is now the sole proprietor of Erik Preminger Productions. Preminger, the son of burlesque entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee and director Otto Preminger, wrote a book about life with his mother, "My G-String Mother: At Home and Backstage with Gypsy Rose Lee."

Note: Jim Adams, curator of the Local History Room at Eastern Monroe Public Library, helped with the research in answering this question. Contact Adams at jadams@monroepl.org or call 570-421-0800, ext. 27.

Could you find me an email address for Ashley Judd? I'd like to encourage her to run for Congress. She would be a breath of fresh air. Thanks.